''There's a powerful climate change signal in extreme weather events in Australia,'' said Joseph Reser, an adjunct professor at Griffith University's school of applied psychology. ''The current heatwave is outside people's experience.''

A study released by the university and co-written by Professor Reser found Australians were more ready to accept climate change was happening - and many believed they were experiencing it.

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The peer-reviewed national survey conducted in mid-2011 and published late last year found 39 per cent of respondents viewed climate change as ''the most serious problem facing the world in the future if nothing is done to stop it''.

Two-thirds saw climate change as a serious problem ''right now''.

Conditions across the country in recent days would provide evidence to support this view. A delayed monsoon over northern Australia has left a string of high-pressure systems to dominate weather patterns over the continent for a fortnight. Temperatures have reached 49 degrees in some areas while the country posted a record average temperature of 40.33 degrees last Monday. Seven of the 20 hottest average maximum days have a 2013 time stamp.

Just 4.2 per cent of the survey's 4347 respondents selected the option ''there is no such thing as climate change'' and 8.5 per cent could be considered strong sceptics, Professor Reser said.

He said a ''remarkable'' finding was 45 per cent of respondents reported direct personal experience of climate change. By contrast, the ratio in the US was about a quarter, he said.

That experience included floods (29 per cent), bushfires (23 per cent) and cyclones (18 per cent).

Perceived climate-change experiences varied according to voting intentions. Some 75.7 per cent of Green voters and 60.3 per cent of Labor selected the ''We are already feeling the effects'' option. Among National Party supporters, 40.5 per cent picked the option but just 32.7 per cent of Liberal voters did.

Results of a test about climate change also saw divergent results.

''Those who voted Green or Labor were simply more objectively knowledgeable about the phenomenon and the issue,'' he said. ''Our female respondents were generally more knowledgeable, more concerned.''